Things That Make You Laugh Can Make You Cry

HOUSTON, TX.—The Philadelphia Eagles laughed when wide receiver Terrell Owens signed with them.They laughed when Owens’ productive season helped get them to the Super Bowl.

They since have learned that what make you laugh will make you cry.Owens’s recent altercations have made the Eagles cry.

The late President John F. Kennedy once said that “those who ride the back of the Tiger end up inside.”The Eagles rode the back of Owens, but now they seem to be inside.

I blame the Eagles as much as I blame Owens for the problems they are having.The Eagles knew Owens’s past behavior and attitude problems, but they signed him anyway.They made their bed, now they have to sleep in it.

Professional team owners want to win so bad that greed will drive them to draft or sign athletes, regardless of the athletes past.The stripes don’t change on a leopard.

Fans, media as well as team owners must take the blame for the dysfunctional behavior of some professional athletes.Fans will seek autographs and wear a jersey with the name of a player that has had all kinds of dysfunctional problems.

They will pay big money to see these players perform.The media build them up to be some kind of godly figure that is above the law. The bad thing is that some of the players feel this way (they are above the law).

Owners will get cities to build them new stadiums so they can pay players outrageous salaries.Obsessed fans will vote to pay taxes to build stadiums for those billionaires, but they soon learn the tickets are too high for them to attend the games.

Athletes are told that they are role models and the only thing some of them have going for them is their athletic skills.Just because athletes can shoot a basketball, drive a race car, hit a golf ball, kick a soccer ball orcatch a football, does not qualify them to be role models.

The only reasons kidslook to athletes as role models is because they can’t find role models in the schools, in the community, in the church, in the media or at home.

It leaves them to look at false hope. How can a person you don’t know or only see on TV once or twice a year be a role model?

Kids have found out they can get more media attention if they act like Owens, Jeremy Shockley or baseball player Kenny Rogers. Most of the good deeds are found on the page near the obituary section.

I feel that athletes are heroes to young kids.Kids grow up to catch a ball like Owens or shoot a basketball like Tracy McGrady.Kids idolize the skills of athletes.

This does not make athletes role models.I can see a former athlete like Barry Sanders as a role model, because he has become successful off the field.Sanders is the President of a bank in Oklahoma.

I don’t think athletes who only have athletic skills to show are role models.There are more kids that can become an officer in a bank before they can become a running back like Sanders or even make it in the NFL.

What happens to those kids when athletes they look up to as role models are accused of using drugs, domestic violence or any other felony?

In most situations kids make choices that will make them popular with their peer group and those choices are not always good.To them it is cool to do drugs, danceafter a big play,run into the stands and get a pat on the head, to use steroids and wear their pants below their waist.

This is what most of their role models do.To some kids it is cooler to be like Terrell Owens than it to be like Marvin Harrison.The TV camera does not follow Harrison after he scores a TD, because he does not dance or do something dysfunctional.However, the camera will follow Owens.

It is alleged that the Eagles will not oblige Owens by trading him.They will hurt themselves more by keeping the disgruntled Owens.